Yury Baluyevsky appointed chief of General Staff of Russian Armed Forces

President Vladimir Putin appointed Yury Baluyevsky chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. The presidential press service told RIA Novosti that Mr. Putin signed a decree dismissing Army General Anatoly Kvashnin from the post of chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and first deputy defense minister. Mr. Putin also signed a decree appointing Colonel General Yury Baluyevsky to the post of chief of the General Staff and first deputy defense minister after relieving him of his duties as the first deputy chief of the General Staff.

Yury Nikolayevich Baluyevsky was born on January 9, 1947 in Truskovets, a town in the Lvov region, Ukraine. He graduated from the Leningrad Higher All-Arms Command School and the Frunze Military Academy.

Gen. Baluyevsky commanded a platoon and a company and was an officer in the of the army headquarters operations department in the Belarussian military district. From 1974 to 1979, he was a senior officer in the operations department of the army headquarters in the Group of Soviet troops in Germany. From 1979 to 1982, he served in the army headquarters operations department in the Leningrad military district and then in the operations department of the district headquarters. He served in the Main Operations Department of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces. After graduating from the Military Academy of the General Staff in 1990, continued his service in the Main Operations Department of the General Staff. From 1993 to 1995, he was the chief of staff and first deputy commander of the Group of Russian Troops in the Trans-Caucasus. In 1995, he became chief of the department and deputy chief of the Main Operations Department of the General Staff. In 1997, he became the chief of the Main Operational Department of the General Staff and first deputy chief of the General Staff. In 2001, he was appointed first deputy chief of the General Staff.